my cousin brandi and i taking a cake break at the hal and mal’s birthday throw down. check out maggie’s blog about the 25th anniversary shindig.
also, take a look at the article about my dad’s parade that’s in the new v.i.p. jackson.
by Zita
I liked this novel! It is very unusual and mesmerizing, and I could not put it down! I had read about it in a review just before Christmas, and so when it came in the store, I was thrilled. As a finalist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, it was released in the United States only in paperback, which is a shame, for it would have been a collector’s item in hardback (see the original British hardcover below right). A resident of Italy, Simon Mawer teaches at St. George’s British International School in Rome.
Opening in the 1920s in Czechoslovakia, this novel follows the lives of a young married couple, Viktor and Liesel Landauer, as they first hire the acclaimed modern architect Rainer von Abt to build them a house which will be an award winning showplace, a place for music gatherings with the best European composers performing, as well as a home for their two children. Seeing as money is no object Viktor, who is a Jew, and who creates the sought after Landauer automobile, informs the architect to spare no expense. Hence, as a special part of the house, a totally glass room is created which makes the house the most talked about structure in the area.
Flash forward and the reader sees the house move from Czech to Nazi to Soviet states and then back to the Czech state. As the family flees Nazi rule along with the nanny–who is “more than a nanny”–and her child, the reader experiences the ravages of a Nazi infused chaos. Therefore, the reader is taken on a wild daring ride from the beginnings of WWII until its demise. So, actually the house itself becomes like a character as the reader learns of its occupants and its purposes as the years pass.
In the “Author’s Note,” given as a preface to this remarkable book, Mawer states, “Although The Glass Room is a work of fiction, the house and its setting are not fictional. I have disguised both with name changes but that will not fool anyone who knows the building on which the Landauer House is modeled or the city that hides behind the name Mesto. However, penetrating those thin disguises will not lead to any further revelations…..A few non-fictional characters do make brief appearances. One such is the talented composer Vitezslava Kapralova, whose tragically short life seems emblematic of the brilliant but doomed First Republic of Czechoslovakia.”
A totally separate story emerges within the lives of the Landauer family and their friends. As a cosmopolitan European art form in itself, this novel requires dedication to all of the underlying currents, both political, aesthetic, social, and personal. I am richer for having read it.
See Lisa’s blog on other books shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize and an additional review of The Glass Room.
-Nan
All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World
by Seth Godin
Portfolio (2005)
While reading Seth’s new book Linchpin, I’m reflecting on his earlier inspiring work.
Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. That belief makes their story true. In this concept, liars are storytellers. Marketers succeed when they tell us a story we embrace and share. We become a member of the marketers tribe and then pass this story onto our own tribe (much like writing this blog). It is up to the consumer and her tribe members to interpret the authenticity of the marketing. A marketer’s performance must live up to the effort we perceive. More authenticity generally equals good work, a more creative lifestyle, and more success.
Godin’s visionary yet short book is not hard reading. Read with care, it will fire off many ideas about our world and our responsibility to connect to it through our work and the sharing of our efforts.
Godin appeals to young people growing up in the Internet Age because he is spot-on with his understanding of the changing world of instant communication. However, All Marketers Are Liars is applicable to old folks like me who want to be tuned into the vitality offered by new business techniques being generated by our resourceful, “No BS” young folks who are making a difference in this rapidly changing business world.
A must-read for today’s small business person.
There seems to be an epidemic of medical books lately. (pun very much intended) Not quite the usual kind though. It seems that doctors as well as patients are dropping the veil which has shrouded the carefully guarded world of medicine. Doctors are talking about their faults and showing hospitals their failings and oversights. Additionally, patients–who because of one situation or another–are finding themselves questioning diagnoses and demanding more or different treatments for their loved ones.
Dr. Kathy Magliato is one of a smattering of female heart surgeons practicing in the world today. As a member of an even more exclusive group—she performs heart transplants—and recounts the day when she first realized she wanted to be a heart surgeon:
“When I wrapped my hand around that heart that was it for me. Love at first sight. Love at first touch. I knew this was exactly what I wanted. To touch the human heart everyday.”
In her memoir, Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon, Magliato gives us “a rare glimpse into the realities of being a cardiothoracic surgeon. Instantly pulled into her fast-paced world, we see first hand the struggle she felt to fit in as a female in the biggest boys club of them all; as well as learning operating room etiquette (the lead surgeon always stands on the patient’s right side), and see her skillfully juggling a full family life as the wife of a liver transplant surgeon and the mother of two young boys.”
We come to know many of the patients whose lives Dr. Magliato has touched. She is professional yet compassionate, treating her patients’ hearts in both the literal and figurative senses of the word. One thing that really struck me was when she said she is ALWAYS present at the autopsies of any of her patients. She does that out of respect to these people who were, to her, indeed people. She stays with them all the way to the end. I thought that was really cool.
Going beyond the personal stories of her patients, “Dr. Magliato sheds light on a medical epidemic, cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer of women in America: 41,000,000 women are currently living with the disease; even more startling, one in every 2.4 women will die from cardiovascular illness. With these staggering statistics in mind, Dr. Magliato’s book is full of information to educate woman about heart disease, what the risk factors are, why more women than men die of the disease, and what women can do to minimize their risks. She is currently the director of women’s cardiac services at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, and an attending cardiothoracic surgeon at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, California, where she is developing a women’s heart center to address the cardiac needs of female patients.” This is a great book.
Y’all know Zita…Y’all know Hal and Mal’s…but did you know that her Dad is Mal and her uncle is Hal?
Lemuria and Hal and Mal’s have a long history of working on various events together through the years: The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Jill Conner Browne’s Sweet Potato Queen books, Up From the Cradle of Jazz by Don Foose, Willie Dixon’s autobiography, and James McBride author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna and we have even sponsored a float in the Hal and Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade. We all have enjoyed some good food, good music and cold beer at Hal and Mal’s and the staff at Lemuria would like like to congratulate Hal and Malcolm and the staff, past and present, for 25 years of good times!!! We will see y’all Saturday night!!!
25 Years, 25 Bands
Downtown hotspot Hal and Mal’s celebrating milestone with plenty of characters
Sherry Lucas • slucas@clarionledger.com • February 25, 2010
Music and meals at Hal & Mal’s both benefit from a long, slow simmer that brings out their best.
That combo has brought out just about everybody else over the years, too.
The restaurant and nightspot celebrates its 25-year milestone on Saturday. The actual birthday, coinciding with Elvis’ on Jan. 8, passed some weeks back, but this weekend boasts the party with a passel of Jackson bands – 25 at last count – and a shindig that stretches into the wee hours.
Hal and Malcolm White, the brothers in the title and at the helm, are seeing the next generation step up to the plate in the family business.
Jesse Robinson & the 300 lb Blues Band, These Days featuring Jewel Bass, the Bluz Boys, the Vernon Brothers, Buffalo Nickel and The Vamps are just a few of the bands kicking in the party mix. Word is, Hal and Mal will pop out of cakes as part of the fun.
In a quarter century in the old GM&O (Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad) freight depot, much has changed at Hal & Mal’s.
And much hasn’t . . .
Read full article at The Clarion Ledger with details on the night’s entertainment line-up.
